Native Plants
Botanical Glossary
Glossary of commonly used botanical terms and their definitions.
| term | definition | image |
| Bark | Tough outer covering of trunks or stems of trees, shrubs, and vines. | |
| Basal leaves | The leaves that are concentrated near the base of the main stem. | |
| Beard | A tuft or line of hairs, as on certain petals. | |
| Berry | A fleshy, indehiscent fruit with few to many seeds. | |
| Biennial | A plant that takes two years to complete the flowering cycle. Typically it grows vegetatively the first year and flowers and fruits during the second year before dying. | |
| Bilateral symmetry | Usually referencing flower structure, descripes a plant part or parts that may be divided along a single plane forming two mirror-image halves; zygomorphic, irregular flower. | |
| Bipinnate | Twice-pinnate. | |
| Bisexual | A flower with both stamens and pistils. | |
| Bract | A reduced or modified leaf occurring at the base of a flower or group of flowers. Bracts are sometimes arranged in rows, like shingles on a roof, usually closely cupping the blossoms of Asteraceae (Sunflower Family); cf. Phyllary. Sometimes brightly colored or petallike, as in Castilleja spp. (paintbrush), or threadlike, as in Daucus carota (Queen Anne's Lace). | |
| Branchlet | A small branch. | |
| Bristly | Having stiff, rigid, rather thick hairs on the surface of stems or leaves. | |
| Bud | A small cell-mass in the process of dividing from a stem to form a flower, leaf or another stem. | |
| Bulb | A thick, rounded, underground organ consisting of layered, fleshy leaves and membranes. | |
| Cactus/Succulent | A plant having leaves and/or stems which are thick and fleshy. | |
| Calyx | The sepals taken collectively. These may be distinct, or joined to form a cup or tube; they may be of any color but are usually green. When the calyx is present, it encloses the other parts of the flower in bud. | |
| Campanulate | Bell-shaped. | |
| Capitulescence | The inflorescence of a capitulum-bearing plant as in many species in Asteraceae. | |
| Capitulum | An inflorescence composed of multiple florets arranged in a flower head and surrounded by an involucre of bracts as found on many species in Asteraceae. | |
| Capsule | A dry fruit that splits open along three or more lines. | capsule.jpg |
| Caryopsis | A dry, one-seeded fruit (achene) with ovary wall united to the seed coat, characteristic of grasses. | |
| Catkin | A spikelike flower cluster that bears scaly bracts and petalless, unisexual flowers. | |
| Caudate | Tapering gradually into a long taillike tip | |
| Clasping | Leaf partially encircles the stem. | |
| Complete flower | A flower with sepals, petals, stamens, and pistil present. | |
| Compound | A leaf divided into two or more leaflets. | |
| term | definition | image |